Pagán Leads Drillers Past Wichita in 10 Innings
May 31, 2025 - Texas League (TL)
Tulsa Drillers News Release
Tulsa Drillers' Ezequiel Pagan at bat
(Tulsa Drillers, Credit: Lexi Ashcraft)
Wichita, KS - Baseball is a team game, so seldom is one player solely responsible for a team's victory, but Tulsa's Ezequiel Pagán gave it his best shot on Saturday night in Wichita. Pagán homered for one of his three hits and drove in four runs, including the game winner in the tenth inning, to lead the Drillers to a hard-fought 6-5 win over the Wind Surge at Equity Bank Park in downtown Wichita.
Three of the right fielder's RBI's gave the Drillers a lead, while the other tied the game.
The victory was Tulsa's third in the first five games of the six-game series in Wichita. The victory also gives the Drillers a 7-4 lead in this year's edition of the Coors Light Propeller Series.
The game was a back and forth contest after the Drillers opened the night's scoring in the first inning. Taylor Young singled on the game's first pitch and eventually scored the first run on Pagán's infield single.
Tulsa starting pitcher Jared Karros worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the first, but the Wind Surge got on the scoreboard in the second inning when Andrew Cossetti homered to lead off the inning.
Wichita went in front with two more runs in the third. With one out, Kala'i Rosario hit a solo homer for the first run. Doubles from Ricardo Olivar and Cossetti produced the inning's second run and gave the Wind Surge a 3-1 lead.
The Drillers erased the deficit and took their second lead of the night thanks to a three-run fifth inning. Singles by Nick Biddison and Kole Myers and a walk to Young loaded the bases. Yeiner Fernandez delivered a clutch, two-out hit that plated both Biddison and Myers to tie the game.
Pagán followed Fernandez and came through with his second hit of the game. Like in the first inning, the hit brought Young home and put Tulsa back in front, 4-3.
A two-run sixth inning gave the lead back to the Wind Surge. Reliever Jerming Rosario entered the game for Tulsa and gave up three singles that produced one run. An infield grounder from Olivar brought home the second that gave Wichita a 5-4 cushion.
Pagán's third hit and third RBI tied the game again in the top of the seventh. With two outs and the bases empty, Pagán golfed a drive well over the right field fence for his fifth homer of the season, tying the game at 5-5.
The game remained tied through nine innings, sending the Drillers into extra innings for the ninth time this season.
In the top of the tenth, Young started the inning as the placed runner at second base, and for the third time in the game, Pagán brought him home. Fernandez started the tenth by grounding out to first, moving Young to third. Pagán followed and grounded a sharp single into right field for his third go-ahead RBI of the game.
With Tulsa leading 6-5, reliever Antonio Knowles closed out his outstanding month of May with another solid performance. Knowles had worked a scoreless ninth inning, and he made it two scoreless frames by keeping the placed runner at second base to preserve Tulsa's victory. He needed just nine pitches to get a strikeout, a fly out and a pop up to retire the side and end the game.
INSIDE THE GAME
*Knowles was close to perfect in the month of May. He went 2-0 with 4 saves and a 1.38 ERA and finished the month with 17 strikeouts and just 2 walks in 13 innings pitched.
*Pagán finished the game 3-5, including the home run. His four runs batted in were the most he had had in a game since also driving in four in a game for Great Lakes against West Michigan on July 22, 2023.
*Young was 1-4 with a walk and three runs scored.
*Biddison and Myers both had two hits in the game.
*Karros lasted four innings and was charged with three runs on six hits and five walks. He was again hampered by the home run ball. Karros surrendered two and has now given up 13 home runs in just 42.0 innings pitched this season. It is already a career high in homers given up in a season for the right-hander.
*Reliever Ronan Kopp worked around a hit and a walk in the fifth to work a scoreless inning. It was the lefthander's fourth straight scoreless outing.
*Lucas Wepf retired all five batters he faced with four going down on strikes.
*Wichita was just 2-17 at the plate with runners in scoring position.
*The Drillers are now 6-3 in extra innings this season. They have scored the placed runner 7 times in 14 opportunities, while the opposition has been successful just five times in its 14 opportunities.
UP NEXT
The Drillers will wrap up their series in Wichita Sunday afternoon. First pitch is slated for 1:05 p.m. and the starting pitchers are scheduled to be:
TUL - RHP Jacob Meador (0-5, 7.89 ERA)
WCH - LHP Connor Prielipp (0-2, 4.30 ERA)
Images from this story
 Tulsa Drillers' Ezequiel Pagan at bat (Lexi Ashcraft) |
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